


Perihelion

by CarrionStar



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, I treat this as if it could exist in-game as a lore tab, I won't count all of them in because I don't want to clutter the tags, OC lore book, There are other characters, canon characters mostly as background but as canon-compliant as possible, canon-typical violence death and dying, mostly OCs, nothing extreme or explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 20,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28606182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarrionStar/pseuds/CarrionStar
Summary: This is a "lore book" about my main Destiny gameplay OC, Davan. She's an Awoken Hunter. I do not headcanon her as the Young Wolf and I try to keep my story canon-compliant when it comes to events and the background lore. I'm a lore nerd so. It's mostly about OCs, with canon characters appearing in the background.These characters are connected to the work of CoyoteStar, so for a full experience check their OC lore book as well!https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoyoteStarThis is a story of Davan going through unfortunate side-effects of dying to an unknowable power of Darkness and becoming a Guardian.
Kudos: 5





	1. Event Horizon

She remembered little of her home. Blurry images of sprawling lush forests and of imposing spires with glass windows painted in many reflective colours. She remembered crying in her mother’s arms as they boarded a vessel that took to the sky and some people left behind, crying as they waved back.

The rest of her family? She never found out. The vessel’s engines roared and passed through, crossed over.

It felt like waking from the best dream you’ve ever had. From the warmth of her home, she stared as the space around her turned into a black void filled with debris. Rocks, derelict vessels. Distant stars all around her.

She grew up on spaceships and space stations drifting through the debris of rocks. She learned it was an asteroid belt, usually referred to as the Reef. That word rang hollow to her; she has seen true reefs in her home. Verdant beaches splashed by sparkling waves. Rocks adorned with life as they bathed in the sunlight.

This reef was dark and cold. Instead of fish and birds, it was monsters that lurked in each shadow.

The spaceships she called her new home were relatively safe. It wasn’t until she was in her late teenage years that she truly understood the struggle of living on the verge of inhabitable space. The constant struggle for resources. For air. For water. As a child, she was satisfied with roaming the dirty hallways and hiding in ventilation shafts, playing with the other children.

But as she aged further, those games lost their charm. She was in her mid-twenties when she was conscripted to use her knowledge and talents to work on construction of yet another space station needed to support the ever-growing population.

She worked in engineering, building and fixing machines and engines and anything that needed building or fixing. There weren’t enough people with the necessary skills. Many children, not enough workers. And the Queen had other matters to worry about. More urgent. Wars and monsters and the mythical ancient homeland’s call for help.

She did not occupy herself with things she would never understand or see. Instead, she buried herself in the work, making sure the station would one day function. Perhaps even be pretty, like the forests and the spires of glass. She wanted that new children grow up in something nicer than dirty metallic hallways surrounded with pipes and open valves.

The station was still under construction when the day came. The day when goosebumps swallowed her body while she was working on one of the engines. She checked for static or a leaking pipe and found nothing except unnatural silence.

Piercing through it like a spear through her heart was a high-pitched buzz and then alarms going off in each corner of the _RSS Amestris._ She dropped her tools to cover her ears and discovered dark stains on her bruised purple palms.

Alarms were ringing in her ears. They were followed by screams. Yelling. A rush through the hallways of the half-constructed station. There was only a haze of her desperate attempts to gather herself and find the evacuation pod, but the crowd cramped the hallways. Abandoned tools everywhere on the floor. Toys. Torn wires and hissing pipes. Clothes.

A body of a child.

An unbearable burn on her skin, forcing her to retch and bleed.

The cackling ticking of a device and the symbol for radiation pressed to her eyes forever.

She turned back and saw blue fog. A high-pitched buzz closing in. Enveloping all that existed. Stalking through the screams. Devouring through the void.

When she stepped into the airlock, she thought of the lush forests. As the airlock sealed, the predator from the dark screeched, smashing into the door with its oppressive pressure.

She smiled as she chose her own death in the cold empty space and hoped that the afterlife was made of spires of glass.

She crossed over once again.

And she awoke once again on the other side, on cold rocky ground with no memories and a tiny drone hovering above her.


	2. Apogee

_Closer_.

A buzzing void.

_Closer. Closer. Closer._

“Davan!”

The sound of her Ghost’s voice startled her out of her short nap. Once again, she dozed off while perched in a small dug out rock on top of many other rocks in a landscape filled with rocks. The bow that was supposed to have been ready in her arms, nested in her lap instead. Her left cheek was firmly lodged into the crevice inside of her helmet. There was no doubt that upon removal of said helmet, that cheek would have a mark of the helmet’s insides.

“There is nothing here. Can we move?” Davan asked her Ghost.

Ghost floated up to her face; his shell worn and pieced together from scrap she found scattered around the many hidden places in the Reef. “Our target has not yet arrived. We need a ship to get out of here.”

Davan yawned loudly, as if to make a point. Her Ghost rolled his little light. “And we’re going to Earth. Right. We’re going to steal a ship and go to Earth. And then we’ll do… What exactly?”

“We will meet up with other Guardians in the Last City. You’ll have resources and access to weapons and training facilities and a structure and government…”

Ghost’s words became a distant wind to Davan. She pulled the hood of her cloak further down over her helmet and began preparing her little nest for a real nap.

“Are you listening to me?” Ghost asked just as she properly turned her cloak into a blanket.

“No,” Davan replied. “Can you start over from the beginning?”

Her Ghost groaned. She groaned back. To be honest, all she wanted was to go back to sleep. But not because she was tired.

It was because she had a dream. She dreamt often and it was always images of things and places she had no memory of ever seeing.

And the buzzing. Always the buzzing. She settled down after the groaning contest with her Ghost and observed it closely as it jittered in front of her face.

“Tell me again, where did you find me?” Davan asked him.

Ghost turned his light to her and held it firmly. “Your body was floating in space, near the Reef. I was on a ship with other Ghosts looking for their Guardians. I requested to go inspect your body.”

“And then you transmatted me to the nearest Reef asteroid and brought me back to life,” Davan finished. She stirred from her makeshift cloak-blanket. “Why?”

“Because you’re my Guardian.”

“No. Why was my body floating in space?”

Her Ghost swirled his shell, impatient. Davan knew what that meant. He was uncomfortable because he didn’t know an answer to her question.

“I am not able to tell you. I just found you there,” he said. “I don’t know what happened to you or who you were before that moment.”

Davan sat in silence for a moment before speaking again. “And if I wanted to find out…”

“I don’t know how I’d be able to help you. Where would you even begin?”

“I probably didn’t float all the way here from Earth.”

Ghost made an annoyed clicking noise, followed by a sigh. “You’re _not_ getting out of the responsibility of meeting with the others on Earth! We can search for your answers after we show up and register at the Last City.”

“But…”

Ghost interrupted her by swiftly turning and pointing at a vessel in the distance. “That’s our ride. Get moving. We’re still a very long way from Earth.”


	3. Accretion

_A disturbance._

_Closer._

Davan shook her head as she opened the door to the bar. The growl of the crowd mixed with a buzzing noise in her ears.

_You, twice-touched by the Dark._

She groaned and leaned on the nearest support which happened to be a Fallen exiting the bar. He hissed at her in eliksni, which she recognised as a mocking query about being drunk already.

Davan’s Ghost popped out of her pocket, worry in his voice. “What happened?”

“Same as always,” she said in the most nonchalant way she could. “Doesn’t matter. We’re here to haggle, aren’t we?”

Ghost spun his shell around her, scanning her discretely. She could feel it in her heart that he’s concerned. “Yes. The ship won’t make it past the Reef without a newer model NLS drive.”

“We could just steal a better ship.”

“You want to go through another fight just to steal another ship?”

Davan sighed. Finding a convenient vessel with a small and easily disposable crew, crew that might even have needed to be disposed of for the safety of all, wasn’t easy. The one she got was one such vessel. Landed in the middle of nowhere, occupied by only three well-known criminals (all three Fallen). Her bow made quick work of them. She doubted they ever realised what got them.

Unfortunately, the ship wasn’t fit for longer travel. It needed some modifications and there wasn’t a better way of getting them than in one of the many seedy bars that littered the Reef. They were more a meeting place for all sort of shady folk than actual bars. It wasn’t Davan’s first time inside of them.

 _Starquake_ was her favourite. But mostly because she already knew the clientele. There wasn’t much to like in the low-light dusty environment constantly choked by various types of smoke, low quality ether and other smells and sights. And as much as nobody trusted anybody in these places, they required a special type of tolerance as well as restraint. No fights allowed on the premises. If one could not bear to share a room with human, Awoken, Exo, Fallen and even Hive, then they would not be welcome inside. In the bar, they all formed a single group, tethered together just like asteroids of the Reef, kept safe by the mutual respect for the only law. 

With her Ghost safely out of sight, Davan approached the bar’s counter. She sat between two Exos in full Guardian gear and a Fallen dozing off sprawled over the said counter. After removing one of his arms away, she was greeted by the Fallen who slapped a dusty glass in front of her.

“Orderin’ or loiterin’?” The Fallen asked her.

“I need to speak to Viksis.”

“Don’t y’all.”

“Just tell him it’s Davan and that I have the gift.”

The Fallen stared at her long and hard, to the point where she had to look away. Her action was followed by a growling laugh. “Go on, little Hunter.”

A door on the side of the counter opened and Davan squeezed inside while the two Exo Guardians observed her every motion. She did not feel comfortable in the vicinity of Guardians and with each step, she regretted listening to her Ghost more and more. On Earth, she’ll be surrounded by much more than just two of them.

Ten minutes later, she was on the way to the ship with the modification parts she needed. The Fallen she traded with was enchanted with the gift she brought; a book. She scavenged it from one of the derelict pieces floating around the Reef. It was a just a book filled with words in different languages but _Starquake’s_ owner was willing to part ways with the newest NLS drive model in exchange. One of a kind drive, he said.

And she had many more books. Good deal.

“Ghost?” Davan whispered as the two worked on installing the drive.

“Yes?”

She leaned against the command console, spinning a wrench in her hand. “I found a nice word in that book we traded. I thought… You’d might like it. As a name.”

Ghost’s light brightened. Davan pulled her hood down and removed her helmet, looking at her Ghost with the glowing green eyes, a stark contrast to her purple skin.

“Hoshi. The book said it means _star_.”

“I love it.”


	4. Perigee

She’d seen the Earth in pictures and vids and even books. She’d listened to people describing it. And at some point, it all sounded like a myth.

But flying towards it made her stand still with awe.

The swirling white clouds over deep blue oceans. The glimpses of green and orange and white. After the colourless Reef, this was the closest image to what she’d sometimes dream about. Perhaps it wasn’t all a myth.

“We’re closing in. Finally!” Hoshi exclaimed, his light brightening every second as it fixated on something in the distance.

Davan looked outside and saw it. A perfect white orb hovering above the planet. Unmovable. Bright. The source of Light inside of her, the source of her immortality and powers. The source of her Ghost. The Traveler.

Somewhere off to the left of the Earth, a grey moon began rising over the horizon. Luna. Earth’s only natural satellite. Slowly illuminated by the sunlight as it shone over its craters.

_Closer._

Davan hissed in pain and leaned to the left.

_Twice-touched by the Dark._

A high-pitched buzz pierced through her head.

_Survivor of the Devourer._

“Davan? Davan, we’re shifting off-course,” Hoshi said carefully, floating over in front of her face. “Davan?”

“It’s happening again,” she managed to say through gritted teeth. “The headache… And the voices…”

“Get your hands off the controls,” Hoshi demanded, spilling the light from his shell over the control panel of the ship.

“I… I can’t…”

Something was holding her steady and it sure wasn’t her own will. Fear grew inside of her and she wanted to scream, to join the vague memory of screaming. Her skin burned and the air around her was blue, deep blue.

A loud bang on the door of the airlock. A sickening pain of grasping for breath.

“We’re headed straight for Luna, if you don’t let me get control over the ship, they’ll have to name a crater after us!” Hoshi squeaked in panic next to her.

She could hear him but also could not. Instead of Hoshi, she stared at the airlock. Outside, a body, reaching for her. Instinctively, she reached back.

Hoshi used the opportunity and grabbed the controls once her hands were off the console. The ship yanked back on course and the sudden drifting motion shook her entire body, snapping her out of the nightmare.

The vessel, now steady and heading in the direction of the Traveler, hummed with the usual sound of a perfectly working engines. There were no remnants of screams in Davan’s head. Nothing outside her ship. No voices. No sounds.

In front of her, the faint illumination of Hoshi’s eye, observing her with such deep concern that she could feel it through the Light.

“How did I die?” Davan whispered.

“I don’t know.”

“I have to find out. I have to know.”

Hoshi floated closer. “Why? Just leave it be. Settle in the City and forget about it.”

“It’s haunting me. Whatever killed me, it’s in my dreams. In my head.”

“There’s nothing in any of my databases that would explain it.”

“They haven’t been updated in a while,” Davan replied. “Your database doesn’t have anything about any of the objects I scavenged, besides the fact that they’re old and from the Golden Age or before.”

Hoshi sighed audibly. “I can get updates in the City.”

“And when you do, I’m heading back,” Davan told him strictly. “Something killed me and it’s out there and it’s coming closer. It’s in my head. It’s trying to kill me again.”

Her hands were shaking. Hoshi neared even closer and nested on her shoulder. “Nothing can kill you with me around. We’ll fight it together.”

The ship descended into the atmosphere of Earth. Before disappearing beneath the clouds, Davan sneaked a look towards Luna and her hands twitched over the controls.


	5. Quintessence

The City was a place of noise and strange new smells. Colours and differences. From the mostly barren and abandoned outskirts, to the inner City, bustling with activity. Buildings as tall as clouds and above the clouds, the circular shape creating a massive shadow over the City streets.

Davan stared at the Traveler for so long she lost track of time. People were bumping into her as she stood in the middle of the street, transfixed. Mesmerised.

A perfect shape. A sphere of white and patterns made in relief.

And an ugly scar pointing at the City. A massive spot of dark where the structure of the sphere was exposed, crawling upward, tainting the whiteness. It seemed like the Traveler positioned itself with its scar towards the ground, towards the people who may protect it.

Pushed once again by the busy people on the street, Davan came back to her senses and pointed her gaze towards the wall encircling the City. The Traveler dwarfed it by its presence, but in truth, the wall was perhaps even more impressive in its size.

“There,” Hoshi told her from his hiding spot in the hood of her cloak. “The seat of the Vanguard and the Consensus. There we’ll find all we need to know.”

“Are you sure? It doesn’t seem like a place anyone can just barge into,” Davan replied, staring at the facility on top of the wall.

Hoshi nudged her, prompting her to start walking in the direction of the wall.

At the top, she felt exposed. No places to hide in. The wind blowing her cloak in many directions. A vast open space and people that looked important. None paid her any mind.

She spotted some lone ghosts floating and chittering amongst each other, moving across the plaza. The colourful ghosts were joined by a figure dressed in white, with a mask over his face and the figure led them into one of the buildings as they spun around him.

A group of Guardians burst into the plaza and startled Davan, but she quickly spotted an opportunity. She blended in with the group and headed wherever they were headed.

The nice and dimly lit comfortable room unveiled itself in front of her. At the centre, there was a large table with many documents and trinkets all over in a sort of orderly chaos.

Three of the Guardians from the group headed over to speak to the calm and composed woman dressed in purple robes on the right side of the table.

Hoshi whispered in Davan’s ear. “That’s Ikora. She’s the Warlock Vanguard.”

The other four Guardians detached from her and jogged over to the head of the table where an Awoken man stood above documents, deeply focused. Davan was relieved to see one of her own in this place. She did not know the man, but he was Awoken. A cousin.

“That?” She asked Hoshi.

“Zavala. Titan Vanguard.”

Davan was at a loss until she looked at the left side of the table where an Exo with a cloak similar to hers sat in his seat, spinning a knife over the table’s surface, seemingly bored to death. She was without her group now and just stood in front of the table, petrified, until the Exo looked up from his knife and immediately jiggled in his seat, stood up and pointed both of his hands into her.

“A Hunter!” The Exo yelled across the room, drawing attention to both himself and Davan.

“And this?” Davan mumbled into the right side of her hood.

“That’s your Vanguard. Cayde-6.”

 _Her_ Vanguard hustled over towards her in two quick steps. “Fellow Hunter! Finally. Tell me the tales of adventures you participated in! Describe the outside world to me!” He continued loudly, prompting a louder sigh from the Warlock woman. He ignored it and swung his arm around Davan’s shoulders, startling her further. In a conspiratory silent tone, he asked: “Have you seen a horse somewhere out there? Ha? A horse? Four legs?”

Davan realised she was being stealthily dragged away from the room and back to the plaza.

“Cayde, come back,” she heard the Warlock woman yell after them and they stopped. “You have a new Guardian in your hands. Please do not chase her away so quickly, you’ll break your own record.”

The Exo, Cayde-6, grabbed Davan by her shoulders and shook her so hard that Hoshi dropped out his hiding place in her hood. The sudden appearance of her ghost made the Exo squeak in surprise.

“ _What_ is that?!” He asked, pointing at Hoshi.

“I am Hoshi and this is my Guardian!” Hoshi explained himself, his tone indicating offense.

“What in the Traveler’s Light did you put him in?” Cayde asked, now clearly pointing at the ramshackle shell made of scraps. “This will absolutely not do. Ikora, I am taking a break. My new Guardian is in dire need of essential shopping. Look at this shell. What is this?” Cayde continued, pulling a flat rusty nail out of Hoshi’s shell. “Dis-gusting. We’re getting him something better. And this cloak… No, no, you will not represent us like this. Ugh. I can _smell_ the Reef’s dust on this. Oh no, that’s not dust, that’s… You know, it doesn’t matter what it is. Or rather what it _was_.” Cayde pushed Davan back towards the plaza and whispered behind her something that sounded distinctly like a _save me from this prison_.

For the first time in a long time, Davan smiled.

For the first time she could remember, she witnessed a civilised world where visiting a shop did not result in an obligatory shoot-out.

For the first time ever, she felt like she could have proper friends and perhaps even family.

 _Twice-touched by the Dark,_ it whispered to her. No, she refused to listen. Not now. But it continued. _Survivor of the Devourer. Marked by the Deep._ No. She focused on the unconnected rambling of her Vanguard.

_You cannot forsake me._


	6. Evection Part I

_The Nighthawk_ , a Hunter den Davan liked the most, was full. It reminded her of the shady bars in the Reef, except there were no aliens here and the shadiness was kept to a minimum. The den was located underneath the City’s streets, accessible through several narrow alleys, corridors, old pipes and a ventilation shaft.

Once inside, the cosy atmosphere was easy to lose oneself in. Dim lights, soft murmur, smell of knife oils and the feeling of safety. Every Hunter respected their mutual need for secrecy and independence. Nobody would dare barge closer than 5 metres into someone’s space without announcing themselves prior.

Davan liked to simply stay there and observe. She developed a habit of pinpointing the other Hunters’ preferred combat style and element simply through the way they walked and talked.

One Hunter sat at the bar, polishing his hand cannon; charred pieces littered the surface around him. _Golden Gun_. Just like their Vanguard. Hoods on, swagger in the way they walked, bold and glowing, like their burning solar energy.

Two Hunters stood in the corner of the den, low static hum painting the corner blue. _Arcstriders_. Fast, flashy, loud. The more excited they got, the more arc ionized the air around them.

Her, sitting among the scaffolding on top of the den, hidden from sight. Two others just like her; one on the floor behind the table to the left, in the dark, and one on the other side of the scaffolding, hanging upside down like a bat. She chuckled. _Nightstalkers_. In a blink of an eye, they’re gone.

“Void, huh?” Cayde told her during their shopping tour of the City which she suspected was more about him leaving the Vanguard chamber. “More like _a-_ void, am I right or am I right?” He added and thumbed-up her choice in cloak. Purple, to match her void energy and her hair. “What brings you to the City anyway?”

“My Ghost. He said we should come here. It took a while,” Davan explained to him.

He whooshed and waved his hand at Hoshi. “Ghosts, pfff. They always do that. Could’ve stayed in the Reef forever instead. It’s what I would’ve done had I known any better.”

Davan wiggled a bit to the left on her scaffolding as she noticed two new Hunters entering _The Nighthawk_. Their dark clothes were obstructing her view of their gear and overall appearance so she wiggled further, trying to see better.

Without a warning sign of any kind, her head spun with the high-pitched buzzing.

“Davan?” Hoshi asked, showing up in front of her.

The disturbance in her mind consumed her. She could see nothing but a dark mass devouring everything in front of her. A blue haze and the burning on her skin. The cold embrace of outer space. Like some sick gravitational force was pulling her down, towards the two individuals that had entered the den.

_Thump._

Her body hit the ground as she fell from the scaffolding. The inhabitants of the den briefly turned to see what happened, but then went back to their business. It was rude to pay too much attention to other people’s problems, at least openly.

Due to this, she was startled when one of the newcomers crouched next to her and stared through a dark helmet. In that moment, she realised that this figure was a Warlock, not a Hunter. The Warlock continued staring for a moment too long and then stood to look at his Hunter companion, pointing at her intensely. The two then began observing her together.

 _Rude_. She stood up and her head spun again. Dizzily, she stumbled and the two figures in front of her managed to prevent another fall by each grabbing one of her arms.

She immediately wrestled out. “Excuse me?”

“Just helping a fellow Guardian,” the Warlock said, his voice soft, whispers trailing behind his words. Davan could feel nothing off him. Nothing about him. “You fell.”

“I am aware,” Davan replied, vaguely embarrassed.

As the Warlock spoke again, Davan could barely hear him. There was nothing but noise and intense buzzing and whispering coming from his entire figure. She narrowed her eyes, trying to distinguish words until a strong burst of solar energy snapped her out of the trance.

The Hunter was holding her arm again. Less politely, she wrestled out of his grasp again.

“Your ears,” he told her.

Davan slapped her palm over the side of her head and saw blood. With a snap of her fingers, she transmatted the helmet onto her head. “None of your business.”

“Perhaps it is,” the Hunter insisted.

He reached to his side and pulled a hand cannon out of its holster discretely. A black jagged surface oozing green lights appeared in front of Davan and as much as she tried to scoff and leave, she could not stop herself from reaching for it.

The Hunter retracted the weapon.

Davan stared at it like it was a lifeline. The third time she felt someone grabbing her by the arm, she did not protest.


	7. Evection Part II

The farthest and darkest part of the den was now occupied by three people; two Hunters and a Warlock. Nothing but the sickly green light from the hand cannon on the table.

Davan did not remove her helmet. She didn’t want these strangers to see her staring at it or for them to watch blood streaming out of her ears. The high-pitched buzzing in her mind was now so constant that she could barely notice the headache.

“Who are you?” Davan asked. “What do you want from me?”

“We just want to ask some questions,” the Hunter told her calmly. “Do you know what this is?” He added, pointing to the jagged hand cannon.

“No,” Davan replied.

“Have you visited Luna?” The Warlock asked in turn.

She squinted beneath her helmet. “No. Why?”

“See? She isn’t even aware. This could be our best chance at understanding everything,” the Warlock said excitedly to the Hunter, as if Davan was not sitting in front of them. “If it can happen to anyone, anywhere, unrelated to Luna…”

“If _what_ can happen to anyone?” Davan interrupted.

The Warlock calmed and sighed. “How long have you been a Guardian?”

“Long enough.”

“How long have you been to the City?”

“A few weeks.”

The Hunter took over as the Warlock slapped a leather-bound journal onto the table and began scribbling inside, hiding the content with his other arm. Davan rolled her eyes.

“How long have you been experiencing these… disturbances?” The Hunter asked.

Davan tilted her head. How does he know there’s more than just one? “Ever since I was resurrected.”

“What else besides the bleeding?”

“How do you know?”

The Hunter tilted his head back to her. “I have experience with these types of cases.”

Davan looked between him and the Warlock a few times. The sound of writing on paper distracted her for a moment. She really wanted to touch that journal.

“High-pitched buzzing. Headaches. Visions,” Davan replied. “Whispering.”

“Anything specific? Repeating or random?”

“Specific and repeating.”

With each passing second, Davan began realising that these two might hold answers she so desperately needed. She became eager to share everything, despite feeling Hoshi nudging her in the thigh. From her arms crossed defensively, she spread them out on the table and leaned forward.

“My visions are of something dark always closing in on me. Then there’s a blue fog and my skin starts burning. The vision usually ends with me being cold and staring at the airlock of a spaceship from the outside,” Davan spilled it, feeling a heavy weight lifted off her shoulders. The duo listening to her story didn’t dismiss her. “And the whispers… They always say the same thing. _Closer. Twice-touched by the Dark. Survivor of the Devourer._ Sometimes additional things like something about a disturbance and being marked by the deep.”

It may have been just her imagination, but it seemed like the sickly green glow from the hand cannon increased in intensity as she spoke above it. The Warlock sitting across from her was staring, his hand still scribbling way off the lines of the journal and trailing over the table.

The Hunter pulled the hand cannon off the table, holstering it and leaning back. Davan waited a minute. Then two. Then she scoffed.

“So? Am I going to get answers? I know it has something to with how I died. I was about to explore it but my Ghost told me to come to the City instead.”

“And you said you’re going back out anyway!” Hoshi said, appearing suddenly, peeking over the table.

“I am! I will not live forever with these things in my head. They’re trying to kill me _again_!”

“What?” The Hunter asked with interest again, leaning closer towards Davan.

She realised she was shaking. “These whispers. I know they’re trying to find me. On approach to Earth, I almost crashed into Luna. I lost control over my ship, the whispers and the visions were guiding me there. They want something from me. Perhaps to finish the job. I want to know what killed me,” she said in a single breath and sighed as her rant was over.

The Hunter moved closer to the Warlock calmly and told him something that made him close his journal and leave the table and then the den. Then the Hunter took his partner’s place across from Davan.

“Have you… Crossed any lines? Killed?” He asked her.

Davan stared at him in such shock that she removed her helmet. “Hostile fallen and criminals, yes. Anyone else? No. I just want to know what happened to me. I like to forage and scavenge for items that might explain it. I keep to myself. I know I’m a danger to others. But I have never attacked anyone unprovoked.”

Next to her, Hoshi was nodding and blinking his light rapidly.

“Do not look for me. I will find you. Don’t leave the City for the next three days,” the Hunter told her.

Before she could react, he nodded to her and left by blending and squeezing through _The Nighthawk’s_ crowd.


	8. Evection Part III

“You’re reckless! We should have left,” Hoshi told her while she sat on the scaffolding of _The Nighthawk_ , sharpening one of her knives.

“Oh, now that we’re in the City you want me to leave the City,” Davan replied.

Hoshi jittered in front of her in frustration. “Yes, when suspicious men try to extract information and who knows what else from you.”

“They’re the only people who have ever given any sort of consideration about what’s happening to me.”

“You didn’t ask anyone else.”

Davan sighed and sheathed the knife. “How exactly am I supposed to initiate that conversation? And with whom?”

“The Vanguard? Definitely not two random shady people.”

“They knew before I told them. They have more information than the Vanguard,” Davan snapped back.

Hoshi spun his new shell; a star-shaped deep purple protective armour that glittered as the night sky when illuminated. Davan was reminded of Cayde’s victorious squeak when he found the perfect shell for Hoshi and they finally got him out of the old scrap Davan had put together.

“What makes you so sure?” Hoshi asked. “I scanned that weapon. The Vanguard database has information on it.”

Davan raised her eyebrow at her Ghost. “And you waited three days to tell me about it?”

“I don’t like what I’ve found.”

“That just proves my point. Neither would the Vanguard.”

“And neither should you!”

The two stared at each other. Lucky for them, the den was filled to the brim so nobody could hear them as they were becoming louder. Davan was clutching her knife, barely restraining herself from jumping off the scaffolding and running away. She was tired of secrets. She was tired of being in the dark. She wanted answers.

Hoshi sensed her frustration and settled down in her lap. “That hand cannon is called Thorn. Not the original one. The one we’ve seen is an attempt at replicating it. The database is adamant about the real one being destroyed.”

“What’s so special about it?”

“It’s a weapon of sorrow. A weapon of Darkness, capable of snuffing out the Light.”

Davan took a deep breath and looked at Hoshi sideways. “And?”

“The Vanguard is monitoring any reappearance of the weapon. There have been some incidents in the Crucible. There’s a group of Guardians dedicated to experimenting with it.”

“You think those two were a part of that group?”

“I can only assume.”

Hoshi floated up from Davan’s lap to be at the same level with her eyes. Just as he could sense her frustration, she could sense his fear. She let go of her knife and extended her hand towards her Ghost, catching him in her palm.

“How was it made? The original?” Davan asked.

“It’s an old story. About a Guardian who went to Luna searching for answers and came back changed. Corrupted.”

“And you think I’ll end up like that.”

Hoshi blinked his little light several times. “No! No, of course not! You are my Guardian and I will protect you.”

“ _I_ think I’ll end up like that.”

“No. He didn’t know what could happen to him. But you do. And I will protect you.”

Davan finally looked back at Hoshi. She pulled him closer and attempted to hug him by pressing him into her cheek.

“I’m still going to talk to those two,” she added while Hoshi was distracted with the sudden affection. “And I’d like you to support me so you can protect me, as you promised.”

After a faint sigh, Hoshi floated in front of her face. “Of course. Speaking of, one of them has just arrived.”


	9. Evection Part IV

Davan hopped down from her spot, this time more gracefully than the last. As she stopped behind the Hunter, it occurred to her that he was not wearing the same dark and concealing clothing. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t sure if that was the same person at all, until Hoshi confirmed and the Hunter waved at her to come closer.

This time, he was dressed as a proper Gunslinger. All worn leather, tattered cloak, colours of dirt and dust and earth. He was radiating solar energy.

His face was still covered by a helmet though and that jagged weapon was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m glad you stayed,” he told her as they settled down in the back of the den once more.

“Where’s your friend?” Davan asked, looking behind him across the den. She wanted to see that nice leather journal again.

“Not my friend,” the Hunter stated in a tone that indicated that was the end of that topic. “But what he said was true. It _can_ happen to anyone, anywhere. Except I’m convinced there has to be a catalyst to the event. _Something_ that affects the corruption.”

Davan was lost. “You think I’m corrupted just like that Guardian that went to Luna?”

The Hunter glanced at her abruptly. “No. Not in the same way.”

“My Ghost told me about it. And about that weapon. I feel drawn to it. I feel drawn to Luna. So it may not be the same way, but there’s something in common here and I want to know what it is.”

“Darkness. That’s the connection,” the Hunter explained shortly. “But the way it was… Administered is different. Whatever killed you… Well. You should look at this. If you think you can handle the knowledge. It’s frowned upon for Guardians to seek their old lives.”

Davan didn’t care. She spent her entire Guardian life wondering. Suffering from strange visions and whispers. She extended her hand swiftly and without hesitation. The hunter placed a data pad into her hand. Better late than never.

> **INFORMATION RECEIVED APR 10-27T17:11:56+00:00. REEF SPACE STATION AMESTRIS, THEN UNDER CONSTRUCTION, ISSUED 6 UNIQUE DISTRESS CALLS OVER A 2-MINUTE PERIOD. TRANSCRIPTS FOLLOW.**
> 
> **T-1: PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN. ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS. THIS IS RSS AMESTRIS. WE HAVE A POSSIBLE SKYSHOCK EVENT IN PROGRESS. REQUESTING IMMEDIATE VIDCOM WITH ANY AVAILABLE TECHEUN. [STATIC FOLLOWS]**
> 
> **T-2: MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY! ALL STATIONS! THIS IS RSS AMESTRIS, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! OUR HULL HAS BEEN BREACHED! MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY! THIS IS RSS AMESTRIS PLEASE SOMEONE [STATIC FOLLOWS]**
> 
> **T-3-A: I'VE GOT IT, HANG ON. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO… WHAT'S THE CHANNEL?**
> 
> **T-3-B: THEY'RE SCREAMING! LISTEN, THEY'RE ALL SCREAMING!**
> 
> **T-3-A: BE CALM! HELP ME! WHAT'S THE CHANNEL?**
> 
> **T-3-B: IT'S THE CORE, IT'S THE CORE, THIS IS THE STALKING CORE!**
> 
> **T-3-A: SHUT UP! WHAT'S THE CHANNEL!**
> 
> **T-3-B: OH NO, OH PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE [STATIC FOLLOWS]**
> 
> **T-4: ORIN, IT'S ME, IT'S NAMQI. I DON'T THINK I'M COMING HOME, BABY. I'M SO SORRY. I'M, I'M, I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU THAT I LOVE [STATIC FOLLOWS]**
> 
> **T-5: MAYDAY, MAYDAY! THIS IS VEN ASAR ON THE RSS AMESTRIS. WE ARE 300 SOULS ABOARD. SOMETHING IS HAPPENING, EVERYTHING IS BLUE, SOMETHING IS HERE [STATIC FOLLOWS]**
> 
> **T-6: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] [SCREAMING] [STATIC FOLLOWS]**
> 
> **A SAR FLEET FOUND THAT THE AMESTRIS WAS UNSAFE TO BOARD DUE TO RADIOACTIVE SURFACE CONTAMINATION. SAR DEPLOYED MULTIPLE CROW DRONES FOR INTERIOR SURVEY. NO EVIDENCE OF HULL BREACH WAS FOUND. NO EVIDENCE OF MALTECH DETONATION WAS FOUND. NO EVIDENCE OF HOSTILE ALIEN INTERFERENCE WAS FOUND. NO EVIDENCE OF INTERNAL SABOTAGE WAS FOUND. NO SURVIVORS WERE FOUND.**
> 
> **AMESTRIS ABANDONED, SET ADRIFT BEYOND REEF.**

Davan read the information several times. With each new re-read, she felt as if a new part of her brain had been activated, but she could not pinpoint exactly how and when. It was like the whole thing was somewhere in her memory, but locked. Blocked off forever.

“I got this by pulling some strings and favours,” the Hunter told her. “I have others, if this is not it.”

“This is it,” Davan replied quietly. She felt tears across her cheeks unwillingly and was glad to have kept her helmet on. “It’s where I died.”

_Everything is blue. They’re all screaming._

Davan shook her head. The document unfortunately did not state what attacked the station. She looked up to the Hunter.

“ _Set adrift beyond Reef_ ,” she said. “Does that mean-…”

“Do not go look for it.” The Hunter answered immediately.

“But this doesn’t answer my main question. _What_ killed me? What killed everybody on the station? It seems to me that’s the most important part, isn’t it?”

“Yes. But I would advise you leave that to me.”

Davan scoffed and pushed the data pad back to him. “Who even are you?”

“Just a Hunter. And a friend in need.”

Hoshi spoke up for the first time. “Oh really? And not one of the Shadows?”

“It’s complicated,” the Hunter replied. “Do not go to them. If they seek you out, refuse them. And they _will_ seek you out. You are what they’re looking for.”

Davan leaned back angrily and sighed. “Great. So, what. I’m supposed to sit here in the den and wait?”

“Difficult for a Hunter, I know. But yes.”


	10. Photosphere

Davan stood in front of the Vanguard chambers, petrified in fear. For a week, she’s been doing her thing; exploring, scavenging, hoarding, staying away from others. A visit to the den here and there, to check on her mysterious benefactor. No sign of him or the Warlock that had accompanied him once.

And then a soft ping in Hoshi’s feed.

_The Vanguard requests your presence. Confirm arrival._

Her heart leapt into her throat. For a moment, she was completely lost to the point where Hoshi had to confirm instead of her, without her input. There was no choice but to comply, anyway.

Something she’s done must’ve alerted the Vanguard. Or perhaps her mysterious benefactor had not been a benefactor at all, but a sleazy traitor who used her secrets to report her. Such a foolish and rookie mistake; baring your soul to someone you’ve just met in the dim lights of a Hunter den. She should’ve known better.

Now her reward was to stand in front of the heavy door, as if waiting for execution. Hoshi tried to convince her that the Vanguard means no harm and that if anything, they will only warn her. But Davan’s fear ran deep. As deep as the voice sometimes echoing inside of her head, a remnant of something that forced her to die alone, in the dark vacuum of space.

Inside the Vanguard chambers, she dissociated hard. She knew the people around the table; all three members of the Vanguard and the Speaker. She felt like she missed most of the conversation.

“Davan?” Hoshi nudged her and she saw four people staring at her. “I’m sorry, this whole thing scared her to death. She’s not used to…”

“Having someone to answer to?” The Speaker suggested.

Hoshi expressed irritation by shaking his shell. “Well, yes. I’m sure her entire history is in the reports you’re reading.”

“I’m fine, Hoshi,” Davan said, her voice weak. “I’m not sure why have I been summoned.”

The tall composed woman, Ikora, approached closer. “We’ve received sensitive information about your… Condition. We want to make sure it’s accounted for and under control while we investigate the possible source and perhaps a way to cure it.”

Her calm tone was miles away from the cutting snark of the Speaker. “Who told you about it?”

“My Hidden operatives are called _Hidden_ for a reason,” Ikora replied with a brief smile. “But rest assured that they have the Guardians’, the Vanguard’s and the City’s best interest in mind, first and foremost.”

“We are here to protect everybody under the Traveler. Physically and metaphorically speaking,” the Awoken, Zavala, added. “You are under no threat from us.”

“Unless you prove to be a threat to others around you,” the Speaker stated. “I’m sure you understand the stakes.”

Davan shifted her gaze from one person to another as they spoke. They seemed to have been genuinely interested in making sure she doesn’t bolt out of the room, never to be seen again. In a way, it helped, but on the other hand, it was so…

“Guys, guys. And gal,” Cayde intervened finally, nodding to Ikora. “You all sound so impersonal and _boring_. May I handle this? This is my Hunter we’re talking about here. We’ve already bonded. We’re as tight as a Hunter and her cloak. Speaking of cloaks, I helped her choose this one,” Cayde continued, pointing at the cloak and motioning to Davan trying to tell her to spin around so everybody can see it.

She did not spin, but only because of the fear still holding her nailed to the floor.

“What do you propose, Cayde?” Zavala asked him, squinting at the Exo making a spectacle out of a serious meeting.

“First of all, stop scaring her with all this official mumbo-jumbo,” he replied and then began mimicking the deep and serious tone of the Speaker while positioning himself to stand tall and proud like Ikora. “ _Sensitive information. Hidden operatives. Protection of the City’s interests. Metaphorically!”_ He loosened up and sighed out in relief. “Phew, you would’ve scared me with that. Me!”

Zavala stared him down with a raised eyebrow. Ikora was trying to check out Davan’s cloak and the Speaker was looking at something beyond her. She could not tell what was happening behind his mask. Quite frankly, it irritated her that he didn’t fix the cracks on it before wearing it. His outfit was otherwise in pristine condition.

“Second of all!” Cayde decided to continue. “I recall a somewhat similar case from years back. Guardian showing up with strange abilities, making a big old mess in the City, trying to run away. The whole package. It was one of yours, Ikora.”

“Yes, I remember,” she replied. “That situation has been handled. Mostly.”

Cayde turned to Davan and addressed her as if they were alone in the room. For the first time, since stepping in, she felt somewhat at peace. “Listen, kiddo, we Hunters are lone wolves, yes, but every wolf needs a pack. From time to time. A pack would do you good. What do you say?”

“A pack?”

“Guardians that will know what to do. Won’t be scared of you. Might even like your little scavenge-and-hoard scheme you’ve got going on,” he replied. “We’re all here to help each other. You’ll have all the resources and care you need.”

Davan stared at the Exo’s excited face, then looked at Hoshi. Her Ghost blinked at her and then she looked back to Cayde who was now doing the finger-guns motion in front of her.

“A pack sounds good.”


	11. Chromosphere Part I

Davan has seen many terrifying things. From the unknowable horror that killed her and set her on the path of becoming a Guardian, to the lone life among the Reef’s many colourless rocks where enemies lurked just beyond her peripheral vision.

Four-armed Fallen with their shock blades and shanks rigged to blow chased her across the barren wastelands as she clutched the hard-earned packet of rations for that day.

She’s seen Hive wizards performing mind-boggling magic that singed the very flesh off her bones and saw their heads popped with a single bullet from an unknown direction and distance.

She has even stood in front of a Hive knight and his rattling angry teeth. It was her mistake to not look where she was going. It was her mistake to think a Hive knight would not frequent a bar on the Reef. So when he swung his blade, she felt the creeping howl of the dark coming down to split her head open in two. She tumbled to the right and the blade twice her size smashed the floor where she stood not one second ago, raising dust and rocks into the sky.

Of course no one from the bar wanted to help her settle the score with the knight; it was her problem she bumped into him. With only an old bow in her arms, she stood no chance, so she ran. She ran and rolled and jumped until her leaps brought her far enough from the knight and he gave up on his pursuit.

Despite all the strange, horrifying and awful things she’s seen that led her to understand true fear, she flinched in terror as never before when the Exo came out of the shadow to confront her.

As tall and bulky as that Hive knight, pitch black and piercing red. She was utterly dwarfed in front of him. She was even more helpless than when running from the Hive knight because this time, she wasn’t in the open wasteland of the Reef; she was in one of the labyrinthine hallways of the Tower. In all honesty, she did not recall her way back and it was too risky to call upon Hoshi and yell at him to lead her away.

The Exo stared her down from the shadow and stepped forward with a loud thud. His pauldrons were bigger than her torso and the fur around his neck made him look like something ancient and primal.

But the eyes… The eyes were the worst. In the middle of pitch black plating of his face, two red glowing eyes stared at her without emotion. And when he spoke, the red glow spread through the gaps in the plating, emanating ghoulishly across the darkened corridor. A nightmare. This must’ve been a nightmare. The Vanguard had tricked her; she _was_ being punished and this monstrous Exo would devour her whole, unlike that ancient horror that failed in its task on the space station.

Davan jumped in fear when the Exo side-stepped and revealed an open door leading into an office behind him. He motioned towards the office and spoke.

“Tea?”

His voice was a deep growl, but there was no way she misheard what he said. She was just shocked. Did he offer her tea?

In order not to offend or in any way aggravate the Exo, she hurried into the office while nodding. The said office was small, but cosy. Warm colours, well-lit.

“Get tea for our guest,” the Exo spoke and Davan turned to see who he was talking to.

It was a young Awoken man in full gigantic Titan armour, but even he looked smaller than the Exo. The Awoken made an astonishingly long and devoted salute before he left the office, simultaneously yelling: “Sir, yes sir! Yes! Sir!”

Davan was confounded. The Exo offered her a chair while he moved to sit at his table. She sank into the chair that has obviously been used by the Awoken man that just left as his armour clearly made the dents in the chair too big for her.

“I am Null. You’ll know me as a rookie Commander and Trainer,” the Exo spoke. “I see the Vanguard has no idea what to do with you so they dumped you to me. Typical.”

“Sir?”

“I am used to it,” Null replied while sighing and looking at the data pad in his hands. “Hm. This is an interesting case. And you’ve had no incidents in the City? Promising.”

Davan could only muster another “Sir?” before she heard running sounds behind her, paired with soft _dink dink dink_ as porcelain hit porcelain. In a matter of seconds, there were warm cups of tea in front of her and Null.

“This is Jay, he’s my… Second in command. Sort of,” Null said and Jay stomped next to Davan and saluted again. “Enough of that nonsense,” Null snapped at him.

“Yes, of course. Sir!” The Awoken man said.

“You’ll go through a screening process before I assign you to a squad where you’ll train and learn what it means to be a Guardian,” Null continued speaking to Davan and took a sip of his tea. She followed his cue. “It should not take long and there is nothing to worry about. I see it’s been some time since you’ve been resurrected.”

“Sir… Did the Vanguard inform you about my, well, condition?” Davan asked in the best nonchalant tone she could muster.

“It’s all in the file,” Null said, cutting her off instantly, as if to signal that it is the end of that conversation. “You can take your tea with you. We’ll proceed immediately. I do not like to waste time.”

Davan grabbed her cup of tea the same way Null did and then followed him and the Awoken man out of the office, thinking about the bizarre turn her encounter with the Exo had gone.


	12. Chromosphere Part II

_It’s not fair,_ Davan thought when the hulking Titan ran at her at full speed once again.

She had been punched and splatted against the wall three times now. Her old armour could mitigate only some portion of the damage and she was in dire need of a replacement that wasn’t purely cosmetic.

Some of her frustration was reduced due to the fact that her sparring partner, the Awoken Titan, seemed to have been genuinely concerned each time her body inevitably flew across the training range when he unexpectedly rammed her with his pauldrons.

Fourth time he charged, as she was thinking about fairness, she dodged to the side and called upon the void, instantly slipping into invisibility, looking at the world as if a gentle veil covered her face.

“Hey!” The Awoken, Jay, said with concern.

“I said no Guardian powers,” Null added from the side.

Davan revealed herself when she sat on top of the climbing pole, safe. Jay ran over to the pole and observed her on top, jittering on the spot like a dog that failed to catch the cat.

“Why am I fighting a Titan then?” Davan asked from her perch.

Null stepped towards the pole and Davan crouched, ready to run if Null somehow suddenly grew wings. “I am evaluating you. Do you think you will not fight Titans in the field? Lords Saladin and Shaxx will be amused when I tell them.”

“Who?”

She heard Null’s sigh and took pleasure in knowing she escaped, at least temporarily. Staring down at the other hulking Titan judging her, she dared to test out a smile. Looking back at her, Null’s face shifted into something indecipherable to her, but what might have been a smile of his own. Davan could not tell why he would be smiling until she felt a tug at her cloak.

The tug pulled her off the pole making her tumbling to the floor with a force that knocked the breath out of her lungs. Observing her, stood Null and Jay, the second man being the one she forgot about prior. His grin was insufferable.

“Well done. Where did you learn to vault between walls like that?” Null asked his fellow Titan.

Jay was shaking with excitement over receiving praise. “You forget that my sister is a Hunter,” he said. “Speaking of, I think this one would be more comfortable training with another Hunter.”

“I know. But I’m not here to make rookies comfortable,” Null replied.

Davan was still on the floor, petrified with embarrassment and anger. Her gaze piercing Null in silent condemnation, she could barely feel Jay lifting her back to her feet effortlessly. Perhaps he was apologising, because she could hear him speaking, vaguely, but her focus on Null’s smug look caused a distant low rumbling hum to appear in her head.

Different from the usual high-pitched buzzing, but equally disturbing. Maybe even more so.

The buzz only ever came with a headache, but those were nowhere near as painful and terrifying as the overwhelming and encompassing pressure she felt coming in tow with the low rumbling hum.

Pressure of the depths. And cold.

She shivered.

As Null stepped away, back to his observation post, the pressure and the cold subsided alongside with the rumbling. She saw him nodding to Jay gently and the Awoken man grabbed her hand in excitement, pulling her away from the Titan training gym.

“You’ll _love_ the Hunter barracks!” He told her on the way while Davan’s head still tried to understand the strange feeling emanating from Null.

Perhaps best left untold.


	13. Chromosphere Part III

Jay was right.

She _loved_ the Hunter barracks.

Both open and secluded at the same time. A lot of spots to climb and hide, as well as running tracks. Training equipment of all shapes and sizes. Tiny holes and vents to squeeze through only to end up at the other end of the barracks.

And knives. _So many knives._

Davan was dragging her palm over one set of shiny blades when Jay finally managed to pull her away and push her in the direction he wanted them to go. She had no idea what could be more important than inspecting every single knife in the barracks and observing every single Hunter perusing the facility in that moment until she heard a soft _khm._

She looked away from one of the Hunters with his hand and weapon on fire and switched her gaze to the source of the _khm_.

An Awoken woman with striking resemblance to Jay stood in front of her. Finally eye to eye with someone who wasn’t a Titan twice her size. Finally, a face that did not strike fear into her heart.

A beautiful, _beautiful_ face.

“I’m Evie and this jumping idiot behind you is my brother,” the woman spoke with her hand extended and Davan fiddled with the knives she’s picked up on her way until they dropped and she managed to shake the woman’s hand.

“Hey!” Jay yelled from behind. “I’m not jumping!”

“You are literally jumping.”

Davan briefly turned and saw Jay jumping on the spot. She returned to look at Evie so swiftly it actually made her head spin.

“Whatever! Null let me hand this rookie over,” Jay said and slid a data pad towards Evie over Davan’s head. “Evaluation and stuff. It’s all in the file. Anyway, I have Warlock duties now. Bye!”

Arc energy trailing behind him, Jay ran out of the barracks with the speed of something much smaller than him. Davan watched as Evie observed the file and saw her frowning. To occupy herself, she crouched to pick up the knives she had previously dropped.

“I’m safe,” she mumbled the first thing that came to her mind. “That’s what the Vanguard said. And Null. I think,” she added, scolding herself on the inside and rising back to her feet.

One of the knives slid out of her grasp and clanked to the floor. Evie trailed her gaze from the floor to Davan’s face. “I see,” she said. “See that dude vaulting with his staff like a maniac?” Evie asked, pointing at something behind Davan.

Davan followed the direction of her arm and saw a gust of arc energy coming off a Hunter on one of the running tracks. The Hunter’s staff was engulfed in arc and he was doing some sort of intricate jumping dance with it.

“Yes?”

“Your file says you favour the void. I want you to shoot your bow at him,” Evie said and Davan saw a smug wink on her face.

Davan first felt as if she had suddenly started favouring solar energy, but then decided that the best course of action was to just listen to the order. She made her signature tumble to the side and disappeared from sight.

There were only a few seconds where she could analyse the situation and find a spot to shoot from in order to truly surprise her target. She ran to the left and climbed a rocky surface from which she could clearly see the unassuming Hunter still vaulting across the track with the staff.

Glowing purple pulse sprung from her hands as the void manifested in the form of a bow, lifting her into the air. The sound of the arrow pierced the air, acoustics of the training range making it resonate loudly like a missile. Pure void energy hit the target directly.

The arrow exploded into a sphere of purple matter, expanding like the universe and tethering her target with unbreakable bonds, pulling him into the centre as if he’d been caught by a black hole.

He yelled as the arc energy around him was snuffed out. The staff vanished from his hands and he dropped to the floor without the expected support of the staff. He looked at the direction from which the tether arrived and saw Davan snickering, but before he could roll over angrily, Evie intercepted him with a raised hand.

Whatever she told him, made him hold his ground. Instead, it was Evie that arrived to Davan’s location, jumping to her spot on the rocks.

“Evaluation over, as far as I’m concerned,” Evie told her with a grin and Davan realised far too late in her fascination with Evie that she had left her knives scattered all over the floor of the barracks.


	14. Corona Solis

He was the Sun.

The impossible density of an entire star contained within a mechanical body.

Shining flares bursting from the golden crown on his head.

And when they shook hands, the creeping cold radiating void touched the warm plasma of nuclear fusion, sending shockwaves through her body, telling her of things that have come to pass.

Or of things to come.

_The Light seeping through a forest of Darkness. Family torn apart with a slash of a sword. A curtain of red fabric marching to the beat of war drums. A cracked mask echoing the deafening silence of a mute god. Rot and spores growing from a planet’s core. Poisonous waves stirring at the pressure of gravity. Across the timelines, a cry for help. A tomb of red consuming swarms._

_And in the city of dreams, tall spires blighted with the corruption of a wish._

When Davan came to her senses, a pair of very confused eyes stared at her. She first noticed the ones mirroring her own; glowing green in the dim light of something that looked like storage. Except not the type of a storage she’d gotten used to. It didn’t store ancient supplies or dirty scraps.

It was books. Hundreds of them lining up the shelves. Books, scrolls, boxes, data pads, engrams. Anything that could hold information.

And in front of her, there was still a figure with the green eyes. The Exo she shook hands with. The Exo with the crown of sunlight.

She finally let go of his hand, as the strange thoughts and visions still stirred in her mind. The Exo stared at her with clear disapproval, his antennae upright and alert. He crossed his arms and looked at someone behind Davan.

“Why have you brought this person here?” She heard him speak.

She turned and saw the Awoken Titan, Jay. “Null’s orders. It’s possible you two share something in common and she’s new here.”

“Ok. Take her to Evie.”

“She already met Evie,” Jay replied and moved forward, disregarding Davan. “You two could maybe find a way that could help you both.”

The Exo scoffed and turned his back to both Awoken, going back to work on his shelves, stacking books. Davan’s view was mostly obstructed by gigantic Titan pauldrons so she could not determine if this was her time to leave. Instead, she brought Hoshi out in the open.

“Can you transmat my stash?” Davan asked her Ghost.

“Are you sure? You don’t want to lose it,” Hoshi warned her.

The Titan turned around to see what’s going on behind his back and Davan met his gaze with a box in her hands. The two stared at each other, confused.

“May I approach him?” Davan asked and nodded at the Exo.

Jay considered. “Yes. But he doesn’t like new people.”

Davan sighed. _Same._ She moved forward, but stopped after a single step, then turned back to Jay. “Does he always… Uh. Glow?”

The Titan lifted his gaze off Davan and looked behind her, towards the Exo with a shine in his eyes. A streak of arc energy flashed through his face when he smiled.

“For me? He always glows. But no, he doesn’t always have _that_ glow. You read his file already?”

“What file?”

Jay still stared at the Exo for a moment before registering Davan’s confusion. He looked down at her. “You don’t know who he is?”

“I’ve never met him in my life nor have I read anything about him.”

“But you see him glowing?”

“Yes. Right now. He is glowing. And when we shook hands, I experienced a streak of visions. I don’t know what any of them mean.”

Jay’s expression turned from plain confusion to visible fear. Davan’s followed the same change and she jumped, startled, when a hand touched her shoulder, engulfing her in solar warmth.

_Writhing snakes coiling through the ice. A gun turning into a thousand blades before fading away. Withering tree and a tetrahedral shape devouring, morphing through the void until it’s reaching for her through the airlock door._

Davan more felt than knew that she dropped her box, but she didn’t hear it fall. Instead, she saw the Exo holding it mid-air and motioning with his arm to place it onto the nearby counter. _Warlock_. Davan shook her head to clear her vision and stared at the green eyes now observing her with less disdain.

“I am Azira-5,” he said.

“Davan,” she replied, still dazed. “I… This is some of the stuff I found while I lived in the Reef,” she added, pointing at the box. “I have more. It’s… It’s books and other things. My Ghost said it’s Golden Age stuff. I think it might be safer here than in my ship.”

Hoshi floated over next to her head. “Yes, since you almost crashed it into Luna.”

The Exo Warlock, Azira, stared at the box before opening it. When he did, the crown of Sun on his head eclipsed Davan’s vision.


	15. Prominence

_A pack would do you good._

And oh it did.

Suddenly everything was easier. Understanding the life of a Guardian. Understanding the lives of the people in the City. The duties on her shoulders. The bonds of friendship. Someone to share her burdens with.

Sometimes it was Jay who taught her how to handle Titans and hold her own in combat against them. His light-hearted approach made all anxiety evaporate from her mind, even when she’d see him charging to strike. He was a wall. Protection from harm. Under his and Null’s eyes, nothing bad could happen.

Other times, it was Evie. Her insatiable sparkling arc energy, matching that of her brother, acted like a charge and Davan would somehow always find a way to move forward with Evie around. A Hunter always understands another Hunter best. They longed for the wilderness together and it was easier to bear that longing when shared.

But most of the time, she was with Azira. He was something else. She could not explain it, but his thirst for knowledge matched her own and his strange condition made her feel less like an outcast.

There was more though, more to him and their connection. They understood each other almost instinctively. At first, they did not share many words, but within a week, she was a regular in his bookshop, transmatting everything she’d ever found on her scavenging hunts to the shop. With Azira’s impeccable archiving methods, her things were safe there.

“ _Our_ things now,” Azira told her once. “Wish I could go out there with you. To look for this stuff in the wilds.”

“Well, I’ve been grounded ever since coming to the City,” Davan explained. “We still haven’t even unpacked most of my stashes and you already want us to go get more?”

Azira’s mischievous laugh would always trigger her own. “Of course! I don’t want to be stuck here forever. They’ll let us go out there eventually.”

Dreaming of the lost treasures in outer space, they’d usually fall asleep somewhere in the back of the bookshop, using Davan’s cloak for warmth and each other for support.

Something within would always reach out to Azira and she felt that whatever lived inside of him, was reaching back. Two unknowable forces tempted to learn. Evolve. Tendrils of the cold, dark void coiling in her mind grasping to touch the boiling, sunlit core of pure fire.

_You, twice-touched by the Dark._

_We will be free from this cage._

_You, marked by the Deep._

_Release me!_

Davan woke with a gasp and heard crashing, only to see that she has pulled Azira who was tangled in her cloak and made him wake up as well. He fell face first into the nearest pile of engrams, knocking them over. When he got up and looked at her, she could tell. She could tell he’d been plagued by the same voices in his head.

His antennae lowered and his eyes wide, the two stared at each other.

“I have to— “

“I need— “

They both chuckled as each spoke at the same time. But the chuckle faded quickly. Davan frowned and stood as well.

“I have to find what killed me the first time,” she finished her statement. “I’ve been told to sit and wait while others do my job for me, but I can’t.”

Azira observed her and turned his back, looking at the shelves filled with books. He didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he sighed and faced her once more, his arm extended towards her. Glowing claws of sunlight made the air dense around his hand. Davan gripped it tight, no instructions necessary, no persuasion needed.

**_A solar flare lashed out across the vacuum._ **

**_The void screeched through the vast of night._ **

**_Obscured by the flare, an object loomed near the sun._ **

**_At the edge of the universe, sharp knives pierced the dark._ **

**_The pack, scattered. Wounded. Lost._ **

**_Light, fading._ **

**_A voice, unknown, cried in terror:_ **

**_I AM SCARED._ **

**_A voice, drenched in death, replied:_ **

**_YOU SHOULD BE._ **

Davan and Azira broke their grip at the same time.

“We have to tell someone,” Davan whispered.

“Tell what?” Azira countered. “No. We will investigate on our own. This is our burden. They will never understand. They never have. And those that might’ve are long gone.”

“How are we going to leave?”

“We will sign up for a mission,” Azira said, rubbing his chin. He looked at Davan with his mischievous glare. “Are we scared?”

Davan straightened her cloak and pulled the hood over her head. “We should be.”


	16. Ergosphere

They would later become known for mysteriously disappearing in search of adventure and knowledge and most would laugh at their schemes, but when they disappeared the first time, under the guise of running a mission, hell broke loose in their absence.

“We should’ve stayed,” Azira would repeat over and over as they shook like twigs under heavy rainfall in the old remains on the Farm.

Davan thought it was their strange bond that allowed them to find each other, but they could find no one else. The Farm was filled with the wounded and the dead.

And the Guardians robbed of their Light.

When their ships broke the clouds above the City earlier and when they saw the flames of war, they rushed to help, but it was too late.

They rushed up the ship, but they were rendered powerless.

As she was pushed off the ship, Davan only thought of a distant vague memory of the vacuum of space.

Why she survived, she did not know. When she found Hoshi alive in the rubble, she cried as she hugged his battered shell.

When she scaled the wilderness alone, she laughed bitterly; it’s what she wanted. To be out there. That’s why she and Azira left. Wish, granted.

The two reunited in a ship that was searching for survivors and brought them to the Farm.

For days, they haven’t left each other’s side before finally heading out to do their duty.

Thinking of people they lost. Of people they may never be able to find again. Of people that perhaps were gone forever.

But the war had to be won.

So they went out and fought, side by side. No breaks. No mercy. No stops.

Not until the invaders were defeated. Not until the Light was returned.

And when the Traveler broke free of its cage, Azira’s fire stirred next to her and Davan felt the knives chipping the edges of the galaxy.

Even when their friends reunited with them, they remained distant, sensing dangers to come, more cages to break, more answers to seek.

It was not yet time to stand still.


	17. Limb Darkening Part I

Tendrils of darkness swirled through the cracks of an icy world, attempting to pull a pile of metal back to the surface. Barely flying, the mechanical monster broke atmosphere, tearing itself away from the tendrils. A wounded snake coiled through the wires of the ship, bleeding rust, oil and scattered opaque green minerals.

Davan woke up to the beeping coming from the datapad lost somewhere in the mess that was her cloak and a pile of books. Dazed from sleep and yet another one of her strange dreams, she dove into the mess to locate the beeping before Azira woke up as well, but in her rummaging, she was forced to begin moving the sleeping Exo until she managed to pull the datapad from the pile.

The stuff salvaged from the bookshop was now stuffed in one generously donated storage unit below the new hangar in the part of the wall that was still standing. Azira and Davan remained in the tiny space with their precious treasure, grasping to the remains of what they used to have. The war had taken more than lives. It had taken memories of those lives. Memories of the past, lost once more to the ashes.

Davan could only watch as her friend stared at the ruins of his bookshop. She had never seen him so devastated. A dying star, no energy, no warmth. No fire.

Now, she carefully pulled the datapad from beneath him and left him sleeping with his books. In the ancient stories, dragons would sleep on their hoards of treasure; Azira reminded her of one such beast. And just like the beast afraid for its hoard, Azira’s voice echoed through the room.

“Turn that off already.”

Davan was startled by the sudden voice but managed to turn the beeping off. “Sorry. Urgent message, apparently.”

Azira opened one eye lazily while Davan fumbled with the datapad. Hoshi materialised next to her, hovering just above her shoulder.

The message made no sense to her.

“What is it?” Azira asked as she stood there, eyes transfixed to the screen.

_“A friend of a friend of a friend is in need of assistance. I apologise for the cryptic way in which I must word this message, but you have the means to decipher it, should you ask those around you. Close to the Sun, a Phoenix is trapped in a maze. Go to his Student.”_

Davan read the first paragraph of the message out loud and heard Azira sigh. “Maybe I should ask you that question,” Davan told him.

The Exo stretched and looked up from a pile of books. “Osiris is stuck on Mercury. Go to Ikora.”

“Who?”

Azira frowned as much as his mechanical face allowed. “You’ve spent so much time with my books—“

“ _Our_ books.”

“—with our books and you’re still asking these basic questions. Osiris. He used to be a Warlock Vanguard and a Vanguard Commander. One of the most powerful Guardians. Exiled and left to Mercury to study the Vex. Ikora was his student.”

Davan pieced the information together and nodded. There were way too many names in the history of the City and even before the City for her to manage at all times. Azira lived through it. She arrived at the end of history.

“What does that have to do with me?” She asked.

“No idea. Who sent the message?”

Davan looked back to the rest of the message. She wanted to keep it secret; for now. As a response, she shrugged. “Come with me.”

“Oh no. Absolutely not.”

He dove back into the pile of books and Davan just raised her eyebrow at his refusal, then turned back to the message.

_“A Hunter is only as good as their word. I helped you once and now I am asking for your help in turn. And when the job is done, you may receive more information. The Phoenix will be able to assist you in searching for answers about your condition._

_Do not fall to temptation. Stay away from Shadows and follow the Light. We will need the likes of you in the wars to come. Ones who can hold it, but resist._

_Hope is on the way._

_A friend, S.”_

Davan still had no idea who her mysterious benefactor was, or what half the things he was talking about meant, but she still knew enough to keep the rest to herself. For now.

“You’re still in contact with that guy?” Hoshi asked her on their way to Ikora.

“No. This is the first time he’s messaged me since giving me that document in the bar,” Davan replied, frowning. “You think I’m having secret meetings behind your back?”

“Of course not! I was just… Concerned,” Hoshi said. “Not being able to detect you for a while when the Light went out…”

Davan grabbed him out of the air and stuffed him into her hood, leaning against her neck. As strange as it was to go anywhere without Azira these days, at least she had Hoshi always at her side.

With him tucked in, she approached Ikora at the Warlock’s newly decorated plaza in a bustling bazaar.


	18. Limb Darkening Part II

In the scorching sunlight, overlooking the desolate burning sands, they sat on top of a smooth circular Vex structure. The entire horizon was the eternity of the Sun. In front of it, a defunct derelict of a Sun-killer.

Davan didn’t understand most of what the Warlock had told her, but she did understand the overwhelming pressure of traversing through timelines in a labyrinth of possibilities, all of which whispered to her.

_Survivor of the Devourer._ The heart of the system permanently shut down. Suffocating void pulling at every particle and atom of her being.

_Be still and you will fear nothing._

Davan startled at the sudden voice taking her out of the deep rumbling coming from the inside of her own head.

“I must offer my gratitude once more,” the Warlock, Osiris, spoke. “If not for you—“

“Someone else would’ve helped,” Davan interrupted.

The feathers on his helmet and robes rustled gently in the Mercurian wind as he turned to face her. “Perhaps. But only few would’ve understood what we have seen. I was told you might have some questions for me, once the job is finished. I am at your disposal for as long as I can spare.”

Now that she had the chance, Davan didn’t know where to begin. Words stuck in her throat, her mind racing through the memories she could not explain. Best to start from the beginning, but she often wondered where that truly was.

Osiris waited patiently, observing the horizon like a bird of prey. His warmth reminded her of Azira’s. The intensity of their solar energies encapsulated all around them. It was impossible to miss. And yet, there was something more to Azira. An element she could not see.

As well as an element she could. A distant echo calling across space, screaming with no sound, of a world encircled by discs and cold tendrils reaching towards her through the airlock door.

So she started with that. The airlock, the space station, the report she received as proof of the events that transpired. Her death. Becoming a Guardian and drifting on the waves of whispers until settling in the City and going through the motions. Longing to know, to reach out, to break atmosphere and head into the unknown where her killer might still be waiting.

Unaware of her own rambling, she felt Osiris lowering her own arm when she began reaching towards the sky.

“Be careful. Should people hear all you have to say, you might bring about a cult following to surpass me,” Osiris said with a distinct tone of a chuckle behind the mask and Davan sighed as she was grounded back in reality.

“I think you two need to cheer up a little,” a piercing female voice interjected and Davan saw Osiris’ Ghost, Sagira, float next to him. “I thought you’d be a refreshing face to save me from Osiris’ constant talks about doomed timelines.”

“This is serious, Sagira,” Osiris said, but Sagira just brushed against his helmet, deliberately rustling the feathers.

“I am more than aware, thank you,” she replied. “Just collect her data and we’ll analyse it on the way. Give our Hunter some respite.”

Davan shook her head. “No. No, I don’t want respite. I’ve been searching for so long and I need to know. I need to talk to someone who knows, who understands. So far, I’ve only had a Hunter who won’t introduce himself. Now I have you,” she continued, pointing at Osiris, past Sagira.

“If you think he’ll be at your disposal whenever you need him, you’re in for a _big_ surprise,” Sagira noted, followed by Osiris’ clicking tongue.

“Your Hunter will introduce himself when he is ready. I will collect all the information you possess and I will return to you with answers,” he said. Sagira was shaking her shell behind him. “ _I will_.”

“Can you tell me anything _now_?” Davan asked in desperation.

Osiris sighed. “The Darkness is coming back to finish the job. It’s been prodding at our borders for as long as I can tell. Testing us, poking us for weaknesses. Sooner or later, it will be at our gates once more. You had the misfortune to be one of the test subjects. However, unlike the others, you were chosen by the Traveler to come back.”

“What does it want with me?”

“It’s testing you, still. Listening in, gathering information,” Osiris said and Davan backed away instinctively, the need to run swelling in her chest. “But we can use that. _We_ can listen in on _them_. You just have to be careful.”

“What?”

“You’re not alone, are you not?”

“No.”

Osiris nodded. “Good. Stay with people you can trust. Keep yourself grounded. And listen. I will teach you meditation and I want you to report anything you discover, directly to me.”

For the first time, Hoshi popped into existence, his shell spinning rapidly. “Are you telling my Guardian to risk herself by playing with Darkness?”

“Tools of our enemies can be useful in battle to win the war,” Osiris said.

“You know, I’m siding with the uptight Ghost this time,” Sagira added and flew over to Hoshi, their shells softly bonking. “You’ve always played a dangerous game, Osiris, but at least you were playing it alone. Pulling someone else in—“

“I will do it,” Davan interrupted.

“You don’t know what that entails!” Hoshi protested but Davan raised her hand.

“I know what it entails better than most. Better than you. You don’t have these thoughts and visions in your mind every day of your life. _I do._ And I want to be useful. I want this curse on me to count for something. So I will help,” she explained. “And you’ll be there to help me. So will Azira and the others. That was the point of having a pack. We’re staying away from the shadows at the edge and we keep to the middle, where we have a bubble of protection. And if something goes wrong—“

“No, don’t even go there,” Hoshi said.

“If something goes wrong, you let me go,” Davan finished regardless.

She looked to Osiris and saw him nodding. Only his eyes were visible beneath the helmet and the mask, but Davan wanted to think he was proud.

There was only one more thing left. She shuffled to the side and the transmat produced the object in her hands. Osiris stared at it; a shiny silver shotgun, “XIV” engraved to its side.

He sighed. “Take it to Null. We’ll stay in touch in regards to your meditations and reports.”

“What about you?” Davan asked when Osiris stood to leave.

“I have a Titan to find.”

***

Davan welcomed the cool shade of the Tower's hallways. Mercurian sand still stuck to every part of her armour, but at least she was out of that blistering heat.

Where once she feared going down this hallway and into Null's office, she now felt comfort. Familiar voices ringed from inside the room and grew louder as she approached.

Inside, Null sat in his chair with a cup of tea in his hand. Jay was in the process of pestering Evie with attempts to tickle her into laughing while giving a report. And Azira... Azira shifted his gaze away from Jay and towards Davan before she even fully entered the room.

Evie stopped reading her report, enabling Jay to finally get her in the ribs, making her keel over. Null quieted the ensuing laughter with a single glance.

Suddenly feeling an uneasy weakness in her legs, Davan approached Null’s table and watched him put the cup of tea away. She called on Hoshi who transmatted a bundle wrapped in purple ribbons.

Null froze on the spot as Davan placed the shotgun at the table in front of him.

“Osiris told me to give it to you.”

Null unwrapped the shotgun and dragged his palm over the barrel. “Where?”

“There… There was a body in the Infinite Forest. On a pedestal. Like a grave.”

Silence in the room was deafening. Null sighed and looked over everybody before wrapping the shotgun back. “You will excuse me. That will be all for today,” the Exo said.

Davan was the last to leave. She closed the door as gently as possible, leaving behind a man in grief.


	19. Supermassive

_“Kid, I know you had that gig with the Warlock. You two had a lot of books.”_

_“Yes? He owned a bookshop. We lost it in the Red War though,” Davan explained. “But we did salvage a lot of material from the wreck.”_

_Cayde-6’s eyes gleamed. “Excellent! I need something.”_

_“You want to borrow a book? Sure, but you’ll have to ask Azira.”_

_Cayde slid towards Davan and dragged her into a huddle above his work table. “Listen. That Warlock and I… Let’s say there’s some beef there. And I don’t want to ask him for this. It’s… Sensitive. Could you just do it for me? I’ll hand you a list and you go into the storage and grab what I need, without looking at it of course, and we call it a day. I’ll give you a bounty discount!”_

_Davan narrowed her eyes, staring at her Vanguard. She heard Hoshi receiving data from him, followed by a specific sound of a Ghost sighing. “How will I find the books you need if I can’t look at it?”_

_“Just let your Ghost do the thing. Do the thing, Ghost!”_

Davan remembered returning to Cayde with a stack of cheesy romance novels. Of course she looked. She didn’t even hide it; she dropped the package howling with laughter and dodging stray knives across the hangar until the two were stopped and detained by a very angry Null.

Memories drifting through the void.

_She composed herself on the approach to Zavala. His back was turned to her, as he gripped the edge of the railing, looking at the Traveler. Davan looked sideways and saw Cayde giving her a thumbs-up from behind one of Shaxx’s monitors._

_“Need something, Guardian?” Zavala asked, turning to face her, and she jumped._

_“Yes. Yes, Commander. I need permission for outdoor training with my Vanguard. We need. Permission,” Davan fumbled. “We both need permission to leave the Tower. Mostly him, I know I can leave if I have bounties. But… Yeah.”_

_Zavala stared at her, clearly tired and clearly not impressed with her abysmal speech. Instead of arguing, he handed her several bounties and nodded. First towards her and then towards a piece of a cloak blowing in the wind from behind Shaxx._

They threw knives at distant targets painted to look like the Red Legion, in the abandoned forests of the EDZ. Cayde was better at it, to Davan’s incredible agitation. She wanted to learn her Gunslinger basics and perhaps comparing herself to the best of the best wasn’t fair, but she was still agitated. Agitated at how easily he weaved solar energy into a sunlit gun that burned through the world. Why was she constantly surrounded with Guardians preferring to wield solar energy?

Things turned around when she drew her bow. It wasn’t training unless they both learned something. And when it came to the void, she was a natural. It would slip into existence in her hands as smooth as honey and as cold as the vacuum. Cayde was the one to call the end to their training at dawn and that was the first time she saw him genuinely sigh with some untold pain as they rode back to the Tower.

Unknown memories clinging to the body like summer sweat.

_“Finally, a REAL mission!” Cayde exclaimed through her comms as they approached the Tangled Shore. “I’ll make sure I introduce you to my friends down in the Prison. Would be rude otherwise.”_

_“Please focus, Cayde, and don’t put my Guardian in danger,” Hoshi said and Davan pushed him away from the comms._

_“I’ll be fine,” Davan replied and then snickered at Cayde. “But you might need some assistance. You want me to send Hoshi over?”_

_“Oh-ho-ho, you’re getting that Hunter’s confidence. Excellent. Don’t do that to me again,” Cayde replied and pulled the plug on the comms until they landed._

She was right.

In the end, she knew she was right. She felt the call of the dark the moment she stepped into the Prison.

It was there, in the deep.

_Survivor of the Devourer._ The hiss of an airlock and a threat. _A privilege._

It spoke to her when the Light went out with a blast.

_Fall and take it. Drop and feel the majesty of nothingness._

Hoshi nudged her when she stood still with his body in her arms.

_Rend those who pulled him from you._

She carried his body to the pedestal in front of Ikora and Zavala, not listening to their bickering. A pool of anger grew strong in her stomach. There was nothing and no one around her except the stillness of rage.

Cayde was the first to welcome her to the City. He sent her to her pack.

And in a split of a second, he was gone.

The Tower was now an endless empty and bottomless hole.


	20. Spin-flip

Imposing spires with glass windows. Now shattered and without colour. Then whole again. A city she had only ever seen in her dreams. Aptly named.

_Dreaming City_.

A part of her homeland. A place from which the Awoken arrived. Perhaps.

Davan chased the culprits across the system with a single-minded focus. She promised Hoshi she would not become overwhelmed and she promised the same to Azira and Evie and Jay and Null. She held onto that promise while the intruder in her mind lurked to nest within, where her weaknesses lay.

It fed off her anger, she knew. It thrived. It showed her the tetrahedral fleet piercing through the fabric of spacetime. She meditated and reported to Osiris. The fleet raced on.

_Yours was an unintentional gift. But we bring more._

“Davan, you’re drifting away from me,” Hoshi said as she stomped through the shattered colourless ruins. “You promised you’d control it and never go alone.”

“I am not alone, am I? You’re here to pester me every minute.”

Hoshi hovered in front of her. “Your Light is cold and distant. I’m afraid of losing you. I’m afraid of not being able to stop it.”

The dark tendrils in her mind spoke loudly. _Let go and marvel at our magnificence._

Davan shook her head and walked past Hoshi. “I’m fine. Once this is finished, we can move on.”

“Can you?”

She ignored him and walked on. She _will_ move on. She will be able to put it all away once justice has been enacted. And justice _had_ to be enacted. For everything, not just Cayde. The chaos across the Shore and this beautiful city. The innocents that died in a senseless struggle. Her favourite bar on the Shore, burned to ash. Delicate alliances, ripped to shreds.

He will pay.

Tears streamed down her face under the helmet and she hated it. She hated this cold colourless place.

“Call Azira,” Davan said, turning to Hoshi.

Her Ghost sighed in relief audibly. It didn’t take long for Azira to get there; Davan suspected he might’ve already been on the way. Either on his own or Hoshi had made the call before she told him to.

She was sitting on the ruins of a once regal staircase when the Sun approached. Looking up, a bright glow brought colour to her surroundings. Suddenly, a patch of grass glistened as intensely green as Azira’s eyes and a crystalline geode flashed purple like her hair.

In an instant, it was gone, but Azira still stood in front of her.

“I won’t meddle in your business, but know that I’m here for you,” he told her. “We were all hurt by Cayde’s death.”

“Murder,” she corrected him rashly. “Cayde’s _murder._ ”

Azira sighed and pulled Davan into a hug that washed the cold away. She backed from his grasp before the dark tendrils could latch onto his inner Sun.

In the end, drenched in volatile energy far too familiar to her, she stood over _him_. She had the permission. Encouragement even. The Queen’s Wrath agreed that he must pay. Davan knew he must pay, even if he was their Prince.

Hoshi begged her to reconsider. Azira waited at the entrance, his flaming sword ready to strike should the need arise.

In the end, she pulled the trigger.

A moment later, the memory of a dimly lit bar and a Hunter sitting next to her, asking her a question, popped to her mind.

_“Have you crossed any lines? Killed?”_

She remembered being offended. _“Only criminals,”_ she told him.

And it was still true. Only criminals.

Pressure in her head almost overwhelmed her as she was leaving, walking away with Azira’s help. Warm dark-red liquid streamed down both sides of her head and to her neck. Whispers clouded her vision and screamed in her mind.

The dark tendrils smiled.

_Nothing ends._

_Predator always wins over prey. The cycle never ends._

_And it is majestic. Majestic._


	21. Dark Horse

Davan was meditating on top of one of the dangerously unstable pillars swaying on the methane waves on Titan. The sway lulled her into a state of trance needed to achieve the depth of meditation. The sound of waves splashing against the pillar hummed to her. Drops of rain sizzled on her armour.

Her mind, attuned to meditation by now, allowed her to silence those that lurked within and focus on what she wanted to hear. Today, she heard screams of the past.

In the deep nothingness of her mind, steady despite the swaying, the New Pacific Arcology was alive. Brief flashes of times long past streamed in front of her like a flip-book. Swarms building the massive constructs required to keep the Arcology afloat. Unknown life swimming in the icy depths of the methane sea. Food growing in places where life should be impossible.

Loud piercing sounds of an alarm echoing through the hallways. A horde of people running to evacuation vessels. Heavy footsteps of soldiers. Yelling. Confusion. Arguing explosion burning debris impacting the surface of methane the pull the incredibly massive pull—

“Davan!” Hoshi yelled her back to reality.

She almost fell off the pillar. Leaning towards the ledge and looking down to the methane waves, she could still feel the _pull_.

“I’m fine,” she replied and stabilised herself on the pillar.

She stared at the waves beneath her. It had been so easy. So simple. With a singular pull of gravity, the entire Titan was destroyed without a single weapon discharge. The wave that followed broke up the Arcologies and the ice beneath them. At the same time unnatural and perfectly simple, the gravitational wave ended life and human habitation of Titan.

Davan wrote notes in her datapad while the memory was still fresh. It would be so much easier if she could see the Darkness firing weapons and log them for analysis. Then they would know how to fire back.

But this… This was different. This was impossible to fight.

“Hoshi,” she said, looking to her Ghost. “I don’t think we can win.”

The Ghost spun his shell and blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Davan stored her datapad and looked away from Hoshi. Instead of her Ghost, she observed the murky skies above Titan and the ringed planet hovering above her. Even Saturn bore a scar.

“They don’t use conventional weapons to destroy systems,” Davan said. “It took a single use of gravity to demolish Titan. We cannot fight gravity.”

“We can fight those who control it.”

Davan sighed. She looked at Hoshi with affection in her heart. “How can we fight those who control gravity if they can control that gravity to strike before we get to them?”

If Hoshi meant to reply, Davan didn’t know. She turned her gaze back to the sky. The splashing waves and the sway of ancient constructs she perched on sang the song of destruction impossible to prevent. Perhaps they were never meant to meddle with places like this. In its old prideful times, humanity thought itself invincible. And perhaps if would’ve been, if not for the predator with infinite knives who came after their god.

She was about go elsewhere to meditate when a ship pierced atmosphere above her.

It was unlike any ship she had ever seen. Elongated whirring machine with a head of six protruding tendrils. For a moment, she thought it was a creature until she realised it was simply a peculiar design.

But then her eyes followed the shape of the vessel further. Lines of what appeared to be cables attached to the back of the ship, ferrying a sphere that looked as if something had bitten into it and tore its flesh. Frozen and leaking indescribable material from its core, the sphere was big enough to have been a part of a moon, when it was whole. Even mangled as it was, it dwarfed the vessel dragging it.

It flew above her and as it did, the freezing mist it carried washed over Davan.

A sense of familiarity shook her to the core.

_Slithering, formless void hunting across the frozen wasteland. Feeding on Light, on dreams, on hope. Slithering, formless void retching radiation over the railings and stairs, melting through the metal, turning the air sickeningly blue._

_From the depth of space, far into the distant nebulae where newborn stars churned and painted with spacetime itself. Galloping across the universe on cosmic dust._

_A horse as black as nothingness stopped to look at her. On its head, a crown. At its feet, a serpent._

Davan snapped back to reality violently as the vessel zipped away from Titan. Losing her grip on the pillar, she slid down towards the splashing methane. One hand trying to grab anything sticking out of the pillar, grasping at pipes and tubes and old metal plates, other hand reaching for a knife instinctively.

She stabbed the pillar she was sliding down from and the knife sparked up the metal, screeching until she came to a halt, hanging near the methane waves and holding onto her knife.

With a heavy sigh, she grabbed another knife with her free hand and began her climb back to the top of the pillar. Hoshi materialised once she was safe, sitting on the pillar and sheathing her knives, still hot from the friction.

“You could’ve let me handle it,” Hoshi told her.

“No need. It’s better for you to stay safe,” she replied.

Hoshi performed a brief scan around her. “What was that _thing_?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps it’s time we pay the City a visit.”


	22. Gravitation

Besides occasional visits to Azira and the rest of her pack, Davan did not visit the City or the Tower in a year.

Walking through the Tower meant thinking about those she lost. And when she thought of those she lost, the vicious malice living inside of her fed off the sadness.

Instead, she travelled through the system, helping her pack from afar. Meditating. Peeking behind the veil. Meticulously logging her experiences and sending them for analysis.

She missed the careless fun she used to have being a Guardian with a pack. She missed hearing Jay’s laugh and his endless poetical talks about Azira. She missed staring wistfully at his sister. Training with her for the sole purpose of being close. Letting her get the punches in so she could be pinned down in defeat.

But not even the infinite arc energy of the siblings could fill the void left in Cayde’s wake.

She gravitated mostly to Azira and his warmth. The hungry beast inside of her pushing her closer to him so it could absorb the unknowable sunburnt core within the Exo. He once tried to explain it to her. _Surya_ , he called it. Something old. Something dangerous.

 _Help him release it_ , the nothingness whispered in her ears. _Devour the void that tried to devour you_.

Davan got into the Tower via the Annex. Azira told her about it in his latest message. She didn’t want to be dropped off in the middle of the Tower and watch as the Vanguard Commander judges her for avoiding Guardian responsibilities. Not that it would’ve been strange, for a Hunter.

She expected a quiet piece of the Tower, but instead, she heard footsteps and loud talk. People running up and down the stairs. Guardians sliding in and out of a hallway.

As soon as she set foot on the landing platform, before she even registered the noises, she felt it.

A familiar low buzz in her ears and humming of deep space. Bloody serpents coiling through thick snow. A mass of jade bursting into crystals.

“You okay there?” She heard a voice and saw an unfamiliar Warlock holding her, preventing her inevitable fall from the Tower.

Davan nodded weakly, stabilised herself and moved away from the ledge. “Yes. Thank you.”

The Warlock waved and jogged off into the Annex.

Hoshi plopped out of her hood. “What was that?”

“Same as always. Same as on Titan,” she replied, her legs carrying her after the Warlock that helped her. “It’s about a person. They’re here.”

“I think it may not be safe,” Hoshi said, giving his best shot at a worried voice, but Davan waved him off.

There was something about this that felt close. It was pulling her in, almost as much as Luna. Perhaps more.

She hurried into the hallway that seemed to have been a popular Tower spot for whatever reason.

A tendril of pure malevolence broke the airlock door and snatched her by the throat. Davan tried to breathe, but there was no air. Only endless black vacuum all around her and a tendril pulling her back into the irradiated space station filled with the dead. Seeping her Light, feeding off her essence.

She heard commotion and hit the cold, hard floor. Her arm was clutching a railing and a few voices yelled something that sounded like calling for help.

She had no idea where she was. Her head was spinning. Her memory screaming at her about running away from the cursed impossibly blue hallway.

“Can you please help my Guardian?!” She heard Hoshi’s desperate voice.

“Would ya stop crowding around her? What’s wrong with the kid?” Another voice, unfamiliar.

Metal door closing somewhere behind her. Davan clutched the railing and dragged herself forward but was met with more pressure building inside of her head. She was sure it was about to split open. With her free hand, she released the clasp on her helmet and let it drop.

The air was gun oil and ozone and burnt flesh. She saw a transparent tomb where a swirling dark creature hissed at her before turning back into a pile of smoke and ooze.

She gasped and jumped backwards, sliding off what little railing support she had. The next thing she saw was Hoshi spinning his shell open and releasing a wave of Light all over her.

It soothed her mind and helped ground her in reality.

The reality was a floor and a room she had not previously seen in the Tower. Above her, Hoshi and a man with a bandana squinting at her.

“You better be on your way soon, kid, I’ve gotta reopen my shop,” he told her.

"Who are you?" Davan asked.

The man sized her up. She managed to stand, picking up her helmet with shaking hands. Her head was pounding. 

"You new here? You may call me the Drifter," the man replied. "I closed the door so you can come to your senses, but sister, my business suffers with each second you're lounging in here. So unless you're pickin' up some bounties..."

"My Guardian just needs some rest," Hoshi interrupted, hovering over Davan protectively.

"And ol' Drifter doesn't need rumours spreading about how Guardians come in here and faint. I've got enough of Vanguard's pryin' eyes on me. So scoot."

Hoshi shook his shell disapprovingly, but Davan took a deep breath, stood to her full height and sized the man back. 

"A planet of ice with dark creatures," she said.

Simple, perhaps even incomprehensible sentence to most.

But this man stopped right in his tracks and turned to face her, eyes wide and face filled with fear so primal that Davan would not have believed that he was a Lightbearer. She could feel that he was though. There was a hint of solar energy about him. She knew solar.

"What kinda trick do you think you're playing with me, sister?" He asked, voice cold and angry.

"No tricks. I haven't been to the Tower in a while, but I've been having visions of you for a while. I only realised when I landed here," she replied as calmly as possible, but her hands were still trembling. "That creature inside the container behind you. I know it. Why do you have it?"

Drifter turned to look at the cylindrical container and then back to Davan. "There's no _creature_. Who are you working with?"

"No one. If there's no creature, then it was made by adapting it. What is that?"

"It's a... Ya really haven't been here in a while? You've never played Gambit?" He asked, a note of offense in his voice.

"What is Gambit?"

Drifter let out a forced laugh and walked to the railing where he leaned on the cold metal and pulled a jade coin seemingly out of nowhere. He flipped it through his fingers. Davan remembered a shape of jade shattering into a million pieces and bloody snakes coiling in the snow. She noticed the intertwined snakes as a pendant around Drifter's neck. 

She wanted to know more. She needed to know more. This was closer than she's ever been. Closer than the mysterious Hunter who hasn't contacted her since his message about Osiris. Eons ago.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this lovely chat, but Zavala needs us," Hoshi said, nudging Davan in the process.

Drifter chuckled. "Go do your Vanguard duties, Hunter. You can stop by later if you wanna learn about Gambit," he said, twirling the coin and tossing it into a pot on the table over Davan's head.

She struggled. She knew she just came back and should probably answer Zavala's call, but this was closer. 

_Closer_.

A hiss inside of her head made her wince. Hoshi nudged her again. 

"You're going to like this, unfortunately," he told her and played Zavala's message.

The stern voice of the Commander filled the room. 

"Guardian, nice of you to return. But now you are urgently needed on the Moon."

Davan would've ignored the message if not for the final word. Her shaking hands slapped the helmet on and she took a glance at the Drifter. 

"I will return."

She ran out into the crowded hallway and back to her ship. 

In the back of her mind, a dark horse with a crown of stars and a serpent around its leg crossed the gateway made of stardust. 

Her ears buzzed with anticipation of seeing the depth of Luna. 


	23. Perihelion

In the Deep where nothing shines, a choir of voices as sharp as blades called out. 

_Survivor of the Devourer. A vessel of our will. We would like to meet you. We would like to show you what could've been._

_We would like to try again._

Davan stared at the angular shape protruding from behind the lunar rock. Unnatural. Jagged. Like a knife between ribs. A cacophony of screams and chants in languages lost to time. Whispers as soft as silk and the warmth of blood streaming down her neck. It has been calling to her for so long. 

She went into the chasm with a single-minded purpose. Feeling the answers closer than ever before. Fighting through the Nightmares. Cracks of bone and chitin beneath her boots sang of the destruction revered by the jagged shape lurking in the dark. It craved the violence of it all. It called to her so intimately, like a long lost memory of spires of glass in a homeland beyond the event horizon. 

She knew she shouldn't indulge it. She had been warned by many. Told to resist the curiosity and the call of the Deep. 

But she could not. 

Whatever waited inside of the jagged shape, waited for her alone. It waited for her just as much as she had waited for it. 

Shadowy silhouettes followed her every step as she pushed through the thick veil and the Deep opened the door. It plucked her off the ground and pulled her in, gentle as a lover's hand, as Hoshi's voice echoed its words. She did not register the change right away. Her Ghost was nowhere to be seen, but he spoke with the voice of a thousand blades. 

Davan landed onto a platform surrounded by mist and whispers. The muffled sound of her feet hitting solid ground made her stumble forward. She tried clearing her senses, but the inside of the Pyramid was pressurised in some unknown way, disabling her armour's systems from flushing it out. 

In a moment of pure terror, she tried calling Hoshi, only to be met with silence. An eternity passed before she realised her Ghost had been the one speaking to her. Before she realised he was not within her reach. 

The emptiness of the place made her feel small. Large open space leading up filled her with dread. Dark corridors with distant blinking lights. 

This is what she wanted. This is what has been calling to her. 

This is what killed her. 

Her head spun. Hoshi was talking to her as she walked through tall hallways made of the dark. She could not focus nor pay attention to the events transpiring around her. It was as if an invisible force controlled her entire body. Weak and trembling, she took the stairs leading her further up. Passing the whispering walls and lonesome black urns, her entire body shaking as she scrambled to move. 

At the end of the climb, there was a figure waiting for her. Vaguely humanoid, static, unmoving. A statue of a veiled being on a pedestal. Davan looked up to what she supposed was the location of its face. She was on her knees, her head pounding, staring at a statue as if in front of an idol. 

"What do you want?" She asked. There was no reply. Not from the statue and not from Hoshi. "You said you wanted to meet me. Answer me."

 _Closer._

Davan scoffed in frustration and dragged herself forward. 

_Closer. You, twice-touched by the Dark. Survivor of the Devourer. We did not mean to give you any of this. But you have proven valuable. In return, we will give you what you seek to know._

"What are you?" She asked. 

_We are the End of All Things. We are The First Knife. The Deep. The Darkness. The Titanomach. The Black Edge. The Winnover. We devour flowers and our heart still ticks in the Garden. We have so much to offer. And you have showed us your kind is capable of enduring the gifts we bear._

_We are so close now. We are coming your way with a fleet of black knives and soon our gifts will be yours. Take one now. We have so much to tell you._

Davan opened her eyes and stared at a floating orb in front of her. 

With a weak smile, her final thought zipped to Azira and she took the orb into her arms. 


	24. Aphelion

Davan watched her own reflection speaking to her about salvation. The sky was an unknown universe and around her there was only a plain of grass. 

A large mesa in the distance and an abyss below her. The fleet of Pyramids decorated the sky. Her mind raced as the perfectly identical image of her own body slowly faded away and the Pyramids turned to depart. 

She was alone in the Garden. She could still not call Hoshi. But instead of panic, there was only calm of the perfect silence. 

She stepped forward and sighed with relief when she heard her own footstep gently parting the grass. The muffled sounds from the inside of the Pyramid were gone. Davan had the distinct feeling she shouldn't stay in here for too long, but she had no idea how to leave or how she even got here. 

With her body still stiff from the pressure of the Pyramid, she turned around to look at the mesa again. In an instant, a root sprung into existence in front of her, forcing her to trip and tumble over the edge. 

Down into the abyss over the cliff. 

The free fall was a horrifying feeling. Davan had experienced it before, but never without knowing that Hoshi would be there for her. Never without managing to grab something to prevent hitting the ground. Never in this strange landscape of an unknown universe. 

She waited to hit the ground and have her breath knocked out of her lungs, but the fall continued. The abyss became a dark hole, leading her further and further away from all sources of light. It was endless and beneath her there was no ground; only shining dots. 

Stars. 

Instinctively, Davan took a deep breath. The calm was gone and was replaced by panic. Even if she held her breath, the vacuum would end her in minutes. She did not want to die that way again. Not again. Never again. 

The panic spread throughout her body and she kicked the thin air and forgot to keep her breath, opting for a desperate soundless scream. 

It took an infinity to realise she's suspended in the vacuum, floating through space freely, surrounded by billions of stars. She could breathe normally. She could move. As her panic subsided, Davan turned around, feeling as if swimming through a deep ocean. Amidst the stars, there was an unfinished space station, flashing red warning lights. 

Engulfing it entirely, there was a black shadow, darker than the universe, blotting out the billions of stars that littered the sky. Its tendrils grasped the space station and struck through it, punching holes and leaking sickeningly blue radiation. The entity had no real form, nothing that Davan would be able to pinpoint, but she knew where to look to find its head. Above the engineering deck, the creature of shadowy ooze dug its tendrils into the hull, digging through the station as if it were made of butter. One of the tendrils spiralled through the corridors and unexpectedly hit a locked door. On the other side, a single humanoid form floated off into the vacuum. 

The tendril banged on the locked door, desperate to claim its victory. It pierced the glass and metal with a low growl that shook the station. 

It was detached now. The tendril wriggled through the vacuum until it reached the body. Her body. Davan felt the cold creeping darkness swallowing her at the same time the tendril wrapped itself around her body in the distance. 

It _did_ claim her. Gasping for breath again, Davan looked at her hands and the faint glow of the Awoken had streaks of dark. She touched her ears and felt stickiness. 

The creature devouring the space station lifted its head. Sharp but formless. Davan's eyes could not adjust to the intensity of its darkness. With a satisfied growl, the creature detached from the station and as soon as it did, the hull was no longer pierced and doors were no longer smashed. Only the sickly blue air remained inside and the deadly radiation contaminating everything it touched. 

The creature floated over the station, staring at both Davan and the distant dead body in the vacuum. It parted its head in a way for Davan to see the stars behind it, lining up like teeth. Then it left.

Davan felt solid ground beneath her feet. She was still surrounded by darkness and the stars, but she could stand. 

In front of her, there was a miniature of the same creature that attacked the space station. Formless, shifting black shadowy ooze. Smiling with stars for teeth. 

"Who are you?" Davan asked, barely recognising her own voice. 

"Aphelion, of the Deep," the creature replied without speaking. "I am you. You are me. We are one."

Davan took a step back. "You shed a piece of yourself to infect me. When I was dead."

Aphelion oozed its way closer to Davan. "I eat the Light. I knew you would have it. To feed me eternally. In return, I am your connection to the Deep."

"I don't want a connection to the Deep."

"It is my gift."

"I don't want it."

Aphelion slithered across the darkness, glittering with the reflection of the stars. "I cannot take it back. Not without ending you. But if I end you, I will grow hungry. And if I grow hungry, someone else will take your place," it said. "I speak to you, but I can only appear in this form when we're as far away from the Light as possible. You cannot see me in the Light. Nobody can see me in the Light."

Davan stared. She wanted out of this place. "What do you want?"

"What you've been giving me since we merged. Just a little bit of Light," Aphelion replied. "Together, we can be both of the Light and the Dark. You are the perfect shape. The solution. The end of the game. And I am content," it continued, prompting Davan to move further away. Aphelion followed, never letting their distance increase. "Now you know. Now you can move on. Now you can leave. They are coming and you will revel in their gifts. Soon, they will blacken the skies and play once again. But now, you must leave."

Davan never got a chance to say anything else. She collapsed to the ground. 

***

"Davan?"

Hoshi's voice. His real voice. The sound of it jolted Davan awake instantly. She hit her head on a pipe above the sleeping cot in a cramped space of an unknown ship. 

The first thing she did after rubbing her head was leap towards Hoshi and hold him close to her cheek for a full minute. When she finally let him go, followed by Hoshi's confused grumbling, she noticed a person leaning over the railing on the opposite side of her. It was her mysterious Hunter friend. 

"He picked you up from Luna after Eris sent for help," Hoshi explained. "We found you outside near the Pyramid. A group of Fallen almost looted all of your weapons."

"You found out what you were looking for?" The Hunter asked. 

Goosebumps streamed through her entire body when she remembered the creature and its claims of being invisible. It was probably right here with all of them, smiling through the formless shape. 

"I did. Don't think I like what I've found."

"We rarely do."

Davan hesitated for only a moment before asking her question. "Who are you? You owe me that much. Even the Darkness was kind enough to answer."

The Hunter shifted on the spot. He did not remove his helmet or look away. "Name's Shin."

Hoshi jiggled and floated in front of his head. " _The_ Shin? Shin Malphur?"

"One and only," he replied. 

Davan would've been more impressed had she not seen everything that happened prior to waking up. Now, there was only a strange sensation of dullness. The legendary Hunter that had been helping her all along seemed to have noticed her lack of any meaningful reaction. He moved to the control panel on his ship.

"I will drop you off to your vessel," he told her. "I'd like to know what you discovered. Once you're ready to share."

Davan nodded absent-mindedly. Of course he would like to know. So would Osiris probably. And many others. 

But Davan had only one person in mind. Only one person she wanted to visit first.

As soon as she and Hoshi were safely boarded on her ship and she had the promise of no more mysterious messages from Shin, Davan zipped back to Earth, overusing the comm system in her attempts to contact the most important person she knew. 

When the line was finally open, she took a deep breath, of both excitement and relief. 

"Azira, I have _so much_ to talk to you about."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to finish the initial bulk of the "lore book" so I could move on to writing about the adventures of my OCs without the constraint of having to explain their origins. I hope this explains Davan's story properly! I'll be writing more about these characters in the future, focusing on new in-game content as well as one-shots.  
> Thanks for reading. :)


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